This is just a quick update to let people know how I’m doing. I am marking some of the first drafts and they are looking very good. I’m not making many changes. There are some common mistakes with ‘a’ and ‘the’, prepositions and such, but really the English is very good. It’s surprised me and I teach them regularly.

I want this book to be an honest representation of the English level but I also wanted to be easily read by customers who buy it. It could be hard to find a balance. I’m sure some people will accuse me or the school of being dishonest about the students English. However I do want to do my best to be honest. What I know is that the students work will surprise you. People often give teaching English in Japan a bad image. One of the reasons I want to do this project is to show to people that many students work very hard at English. That there are some faults with the system but like any system this is true.

I’ll continue my work and I’ll be back again with another report soon.

Hello there! Long time no see. I’ve been on school vacation, so it’s been hard to keep track of progress with the project. As of today though, I’m back at school daily. So regular reports will resume.

I was pleased to see that many first draft reports have been handed in already. I really thought the students would wait until our first lesson. There are still many to collect, but I’m going to give them a week to get the first draft in.

My task now, is to check this and prompt them to write more. I’m going to ask questions to make them give me more information. Then the reviews will be even longer. I’m pleased with how long they are actually, but we are publishing these, so the more the better.

After they are checked, I shall return them to make a final draft on paper, then it will be off to the computer room to type the final draft! The students are doing that, of course! If I typed them all up, we would never get to release this book!

I spent most of yesterday searching for a replacement illustrator to make the promotional material for our book. It was hard because most of the artists I found, on my old haunt DeviantArt.com, the ones that were really good we’re either super busy or they had been inactive for ages.

Well, I’ve found two that are good and available but I’m not totally sure which one to pick. The first has lovely detail and color, but I think his pictures might be too busy and there is something about the characters I don’t like. I’m not sure what it is. But his work is excellent overall. The second has a very good anime style, but maybe it’s too cute? I’m not sure.

So I’ll let you guys have some input. Who do you think should make the header, banner, icon and poster for our online promotion?

Recently, we changed our schedule. I just heard from my illustrator that it will now conflict with some of her other work. This means she will not be able to do the banner and icon for the fundraising drive as I had hoped. However, she might still be able to contribute artwork to the book itself.

I’m considering looking for another artist because the promotional material is very important. I want our project to look professional and make a good impression. If you know any good illustrators please contact me.

It’s been a while. I’ve been on vacation, and took a lovely trip to Hong Kong. It’s really great over there. Anyway, now that I’m back, I can continue to give you information about the project.

It’s summer vacation now. All the students have chosen their topics and there is quite a variety! It’s surprised me, but I’m very pleased. Here is an example of one class’ topic sheet.

So, now, during the vacation, the students are writing their first drafts of their reports. The deadline is 1st September. After that, I’ll mark them and ask them to write a final report on computer. That is what we will use in the book. They’ve done so well at choosing interesting topics that I’m sure their reports will be just as impressive!

As for me, I’m going to start preparing for the Indiegogo.com project funding drive. I’m going to have some advertisements made, I’ll spread the word online and I’m going to contact a few, more famous people who might be interested in just writing a tweet or Facebook post to their legions of fans for us. Every little bit helps!

You can do the same! If you tell people about the project we can get more backers and raise a huge amount of money for earthquake victims and get more copies of this book ready for the release date.

I’ll be updating here, and on our Facebook page, more regularly now. So please come back and follow our progress, or click that subscribe button on the right hand side of the page. Thanks! We all appreciate it.